Which Video Capture Card?

So far I've been fortunate enough not to have to digitize much of my own ftg (it comes to me on hard drives) but times, they are a' changin'. I have a G5 dual 2.5 and I need to purchase a capture card that will handle SD, SDI and HD. The Kona family seems to have all of my requirements but I'd love to hear from those of you who actually use them and what your experiences are or if you'd recommend a different manufacturer.

Thanks in advance,

Evan

Just FYI, SDI is a connector type, not a format.

Kona 2 only does SDI connections, but it does SD and HD.
Kona 3 is for the Quads and their PCIe connection, again, SDI only
Kona LH and LHe does SD and HD, and has SDI, Component and composite connections
Decklink HD 4:2:2 does SD and HD and has SDI only connections
Decklink Multibridge does SD and HD and has SDI, component, composite.

Thanks Shane.

OK, to be more specific, I require SDI input for my digital sources and RGB (component) inputs for my analog sources and I require support for HD.

More than anything though, I'm interested in peoples' real world experience with capture cards and which they think are the most reliable and have the fewest quirks.

Thanks



Post Edited (02-16-06 17:00)

I have a Kona 2, and an AJA i/O and will be ordering a Kona 3 soon. I haven't had any problems or complaints, and I hear AJA's service is top notch - but like I said, I've never had to use it!

Rock solid cards, great compatibility with different formats, and just an all around great upgrade to an FCP rig. But just as people have been hounding on the poor guy with the BetaSP genlock, buying a "high-end" capture and playback card does not mean you are now a "high-end" post house. There are many more pieces to the puzzle. Like what hard drives are you going to be using if you are doing HD? what monitor?

-Rick

Thanks Rick, These are the kinds of reviews I was hoping to hear. It seems that most of the pro houses and boutiques like the AJA family. Believe me, I have no illusions as to what it takes to work on the high end stuff. I've been doing this for 20 years and have recently switched from Avid to FCP.

Welcome to the FCP world, Evan. A lot of us started on Avid and still use it for some producers and workflows.

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Place and edit Marker labels immediately with M-M !

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Now available at KeyGuide Central
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I'll throw my 2 cents in behind the boys at Blackmagic....Use a Decklink extreme card here as an interim measure till we go up to the HD pro option later in the year.

fantastic card, great support and a killer price!!!

you can't go wrong with either company

I have a Decklink Extreme and think it is fantastic. I have done quite a bit of Analog 10 Bit Uncompressed capture with it and I am very happy with the quality as well as the software utilities and codecs that come with it. And a great price!

I'm new to this. Could you kindly clarify to me why doesn't the capture card in FCP5 dual process 2.7 G5 capture SD. SDI ? I know it only captures HDV, not HD, so are these additional capture cards for HD? Also I have a Pinnacle Systems Movie Box -- I think it's the ADVC 110 -- for capturing analogue. Are the Kona. AJA, Decklink for a different purpose or do they do analogue capturing also. And what exactly is SDI ? And lastly as I'm shooting a feature film in HDV, what should I finalize my HDV movie to: uncompressed 8 bit and then do an MPEG2 compression for DVD release? Is this the best way to go? Thanks!

"I'm new to this. Could you kindly clarify to me why doesn't the capture card in FCP5 dual process 2.7 G5 capture SD. SDI?"

The computers do not come with build in capture cards. Only firewire ports that allow them to connect to and capture from cameras ALSO equipped with firewire ports.

"I know it only captures HDV, not HD, so are these additional capture cards for HD?"

Yes. You will need an additional Capture Card for HD...unless it is DVCPRO HD, then you don't. That is captured via firewire.

". Are the Kona. AJA, Decklink for a different purpose or do they do analogue capturing also."

Depends on the card. The AJA I/O is an SD card that captures SDI, Component, Composite and S-Video...as is the Decklink Extreme and Aurora Pipe Pro. They all have various cards for various tasks...some capture analogue as well as SDI, some ONLY via SDI. The Kona 2 and Kona 3 are HD cards that only capture via SDI...while the Kona LH captures SDI, and analogue formats...as does the Decklink Multibridge. The Decklink HD series, however, are all SDI only. You have lots of options out there.

"And what exactly is SDI ?"

A high quality connection that carries video and audio over one cable, using a BNC connector type connection.